What’s that you’re doing, Ms. Mischuretz?

“Airplanes have always fascinated me, especially jet engines. Think about it: Modern air traffic would be unthinkable without them. What I’m doing right now is attaching a fuel hose to our training engine. I’m only in my first year of training, so I’m not allowed to work on an engine installed on an operating aircraft, but my colleagues and I practice everything in the training workshop. Some of the tasks and procedures are quite easy to learn, others are more difficult, so we have to practice again and again. One of these tasks is securing bolts with a safety wire. To do so, I run the wire through the heads of two bolts that are already in place and twist it tight in a particular way. The vibrations in the engine can cause the bolts to loosen, which is why they have to be secured. Some of the places I have to get to are so tricky that I have to use a mirror. Working with a mirror image makes the job quite a lot harder.”